Les Bordes Golf Club

Few courses in Europe carry the mystique of Les Bordes. Founded in 1987 by the late Baron Marcel Bich — the industrialist behind the Bic pen empire — and his Japanese business partner Yoshiaki Sakurai, the club was conceived from the outset as a purely private retreat, utterly removed from the commercial golf world. Robert von Hagge designed the original layout across a sprawling private hunting estate in the Sologne, a hauntingly beautiful region of dense forest, heathland, and étangs — the shallow lakes and ponds that define this part of central France. For decades it appeared on virtually every serious ranking of the world's greatest courses, often cracking the global top 20.

The Sologne setting is everything here. Mature pines, silver birches, and the ever-present water hazards give the course a severe, austere beauty that feels nothing like a manufactured resort. The design rewards precision over power, and the sheer isolation of the estate amplifies the sense that you are somewhere genuinely apart from the world.

In recent years Les Bordes has expanded significantly, adding new holes and a second course designed by Tom Fazio II, while opening a luxury resort offering limited access to non-members. The original von Hagge layout, however, remains the crown jewel — a course that earned its legendary reputation entirely on merit and continues to deliver one of the most serious rounds of golf on the continent.